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Re: Troy Smith's Active

Originally Posted by festivus

Really? When was he our starting QB? For two games last year, when our other two active quarterbacks, and the entire offensive coaching staff, wasn't here?

I can't be bothered to get too worked up over who our #2 quarterback is, when our #1 seems to be doing fine. If we need the backup to come in, I suppose we will find out then whether Smith is yet physically ready.

Fights among fans over who should be backup QB? The ghost of seasons past. . .

Re: Troy Smith's Active

this is a bit off topic but i have a question...i heard harbs say in an interview that troy smith has "proven" himself in the nfl as a good quaterback or nfl football player.(im not sure of the exact words here)but i was wondering could someone take a moment of thier time and explain to me how this dude has actually proven himself at all in the NFL??

Re: Troy Smith's Active

Originally Posted by bmorebirds_24

this is a bit off topic but i have a question...i heard harbs say in an interview that troy smith has "proven" himself in the nfl as a good quaterback or nfl football player.(im not sure of the exact words here)but i was wondering could someone take a moment of thier time and explain to me how this dude has actually proven himself at all in the NFL??

He played 4 games pretty well without much supporting talent as a rookie. He played very well against the Steelers starting defense week 17, and was the main offensive force in the win.

Then he proved himself to the coaches during the OTAs and offseason conditioning program where he set himself up to enter the year as the favorite to be the starter.

The fans have seen him against NFL competion less than a dozen times, but the coaches have seen every practice at least twice, and talk to him every day. I am convinced the coaches we have now know ahat they are talking about when it comes to QB play and offense in general.
So basically I think Troy has proven to be a viable NFL qb, and has convinced not only his fellow players and most fans, he convinced the coaches who actually know what all the calls and routes are, and where the ball is supposed to go and what not.

Flacco is the best rookie QB I have ever seen play every down and Troy had him buried on the bench behind coaches who know what they are looking at. I have not seen Flacco do anything that Troy has not, and so far Troy has been much more accurate on the deep pass. Joe obviously has the bigger arm and upside, and has the job until further notice, but Troy is by far the #2 over a guy off the street who has never been concidered a starter, and the team has enough confidence in him, to not have added a vet Qb with starting experience when Boller went down.

Re: Troy Smith's Active

Originally Posted by Ravenatic20

We all know that Troy would have been the starter if he kept playing.

I really don't see this as fact. Boller cdonsistantly outplayed him the majority of the TC, and then outplayed him throughout the preseason. I can say, as a fact that the coaching staff was doing what they could to HAND Troy the starting job, but he was doing a pretty crappy job of grabbing it.

Re: Troy Smith's Active

What is this continuing fascination with the undersized, inaccurate, 5th round pick? In his one game against a foe who gave a shit about the outcome of the game (Seattle), he was minus 10 yards passing, conceding the game to an unimpressive contender. His preseason was poor. Why the man-love?

Smith is here for one reason: his dirt cheap salary for '08 and '09. Add a low tender in '10: it's doubtful that another team will match it -- no one wanted him in the draft and he's done nothing to demonstrate that he's anything more than a fifth rounder. There should be enough cap savings by retaining Smith over the next 2 1/2 seasons (compared to the market value of NFL backups) to fund a starter or two.

Ozzie has to make amends for the over-inflated contracts to McNair and McGahee. Keeping Smith is one way to make a positive dent.

In a 2003 BBC poll that asked Brits to name the "Greatest American Ever", Mr. T came in fourth, behind ML King (3rd), Abe Lincoln (2nd) and Homer Simpson (1st).

Re: Troy Smith's Active

Originally Posted by Ravenatic20

We all know that Troy would have been the starter if he kept playing.

Actually, we don't all know that. Flacco became the starter by default, but we don't know who would have started if Boller hadn't been injured and Smith hadn't become ill. I, for one, don't recall Smith playing that great in the preseason.

Hopefully this will be a moot point anyway, with Flacco staying healthy and the backup staying on the bench.